Whereas, the Goods and Services Tax has been introduced in Maharashtra with effect from the 1st July 2017 and therefore it is necessary to plan and do risk based selective assessment and also to reduce the compliance burden on the dealer by providing the criteria for selection of cases for assessments under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 (Mah. IX of 2005) (hereinafter referred to as " Value Added Tax Act ") and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (74 of 1956) (hereinafter referred to as " the Central Sales Tax ");

And whereas, the Maharashtra Sales Tax Department (hereinafter referred to as " the Sales Tax Department ") is implementing Goods and Services Tax and the pending legacy work under the existing Value Added Tax Act and Central Sales Tax Act need to be planned and disposed expeditiously ;

And whereas, for planning the risk based selection of the assessments it is necessary to formulate the criteria for selection of cases for assessment, determine the likely revenue earnings in each case with the use of the Business Intelligence Data Warehouse tools or such other electronic data mining tools, as may be necessary and evaluate the availability of the man power and the cases to be selected for assessment ;

And whereas, the Government of Maharashtra considers it expedient, to formulate a Scheme to decide the criteria for selection of the cases for assessment based on threshold revenue earnings above which assessment may be done, and to dispose the said selected cases in a time bound manner ;

Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ii) of section 26B of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002, the Government of Maharashtra, is hereby enact a Scheme for the aforesaid purposes and in the manner hereinafter appearing, namely :

1. Short Title.-

This Scheme may be called the Maharashtra Criteria for Selection (on the basis of probable revenue earnings) of the cases for Assessment Scheme, 2018.

2. Definitions.-

(1) In this Scheme unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "Act" means the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 (Mah. IX of 2005);

(b) "Computerized Desk Processing (CDP)" means automated processing, undertaken from time to time, of electronically collected data related to Registration, Returns, Audit Report and Payments used to factor in the probable revenue earnings involved in a particular case, on such basis as may be decided for the said purpose ;

(c)"Non-genuine dealer" means the dealer whose name appears in the list of the Non-genuine dealer maintained with the Sales Tax Department on the official web-site www.mahavat.gov.in or www.mahagst.gov.in ;

(d) "Probable revenue earnings" means the amount of probable revenue indicated on analysis of electronic data available with the Sales Tax Department;

(e) "Rules" means the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Rules, 2005.

(2) Words and expressions used in this Scheme but not defined shall have the same meaning respectively assigned to them in the Act and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and Rules made thereunder.

3. Applicability-

This Scheme shall be applicable to the cases where the proceeding of assessment has not been initiated by issuance of notice as required under the Act or as the case may be, under the Central Sales Tax Act.

4. Committee for selection of the cases for assessment.-

(1) The Commissioner, in order to facilitate the selection of cases for assessment on the basis of the selection criteria as specified in clause 6, may constitute a committee called "the Selection Committee".

(2) The Commissioner shall decide the members of the Selection Committee.

(3) The Selection Committee shall,-

(a) formulate the criteria for selection of cases for assessment and make the recommendation to the Commissioner in this behalf;

(b) select the cases for assessment on the basis of criteria mentioned in sub-clauses (1) and (3) of clause 6 ;

(c) perform other work as may be assigned by the Commissioner for the purposes of the Scheme.

5. Determination of probable revenue earnings.-

(1) The Commissioner may determine probable revenue earnings with the use of Business Intelligence Data Warehouse Tools (BIDW) or such other electronic data mining tools, as may be necessary for this purpose.

(2) The Commissioner, for this purpose may use electronic data related to Registration, Returns, Audit Report and Payments so received or, as the case may be, the inputs received from the Government Departments or the Government Agencies.

6. Criteria for selection of the cases for assessment.-

(1) For the purpose of selection of cases of assessment, the probable revenue in each case may be calculated. The following criteria may be applied in calculating probable revenue earning while carrying out the Computerized Desk Processing,-

(a) claim of set-off on the strength of the purchase invoices that are issued by the Non-genuine dealer ;

(b) claim of set-off on the basis of the purchases made from the supplier whose Tax Identification Number (hereinafter referred as " TIN ") is non-est or registration certificate has been cancelled with effect from the date on or before the day immediately preceding the first day of April of year for which the case is selected for the purpose of assessment ;

(c) claim of set-off on the basis of the purchases made from the supplier who has not filed a single return for the financial year for which the cases are selected for the assessment;

(d) claim of set-off on the basis of purchases made from the supplier of goods who has opted for the lump-sum payment in lieu of tax as per the provisions of sub-sections (1), (2) and (3A) of section 42 of the Act;

(e) claim of set-off on the basis of the purchases made from the supplier who has not disclosed any taxable sales either in his return or, as the case may be, in the Audit Report as submitted as per section 61 of the Act (hereinafter referred to as the "Audit Report") ;

(f) claim of set-off from such supplier who has filed the full Annexure J (Section 1) to Audit Report or, as the case may be, the Annexure J (Section 1) filed with the return and has not disclosed the TIN of claimant dealer;

(g) claim of set-off from such supplier who has filed the full Annexure J (Section-1) to the Audit Report or, as the case may be, the Annexure J (section-1) filed with the return and has disclosed less tax collection vis-a-vis claim of set-off by the claimant dealer ;

(h) excess claim of the set-off by the claimant dealer where Gross Purchases claimed in Annexure J (Section 2) to the Audit Report or, as the case may be, filed with the return (by the claimant dealer) and Gross Sales figures declared in the Audit Report submitted by the supplier in his Annexure J (Section 1) to the Audit report or, as the case may be, filed with the return, matches ;

(i) differential additional liability of the tax or, as the case may be, the interest determined by the Accountant as mentioned in Table 2, 3 and 6 of PART-1 of the Audit Report, on appropriate comparison of the aforesaid Tables.

(2) Cases having probable revenue earnings of rupees ten lakh or more for a given year, determined on the basis of one or more criteria given in sub-clause (1) above, whether said criteria are applied singly or jointly, shall be selected for the assessment.

Provided further that, in case of the dealers, whose registration certificate is not deemed to have been cancelled under sub-section (6A) of section 16 of the Act, the provisions of this sub-clause shall not be applicable for the periods starting from the 1st July 2017

(3) Such other criteria as the Commissioner may, from time to time, deem fit or the cases selected on the basis of the recommendations made by the Selection Committee constituted for the said purpose.

(4) The Commissioner shall decide the cases to be selected for assessment as specified under sub-clause (3) above based on the probable revenue earnings, the availability of the manpower and workload that can be performed.

7. Empowerment of the Commissioner.-

(1) For better and effective implementation of the Scheme, the Commissioner may,-

(a) accept fully or partly the recommendations made by the Committee for selection of the cases for the assessment or modify the said recommendations ;

(b) provide guidance and resolve difficulties in the implementation of the Scheme ;

(c) assess and decide the total workload based on availability of the manpower ;

(d) decide the modalities for determination of likely revenue earning and methodology and analytical tools to be used for it.

(2) The dealer shall not have any right to call in question the decision taken by the Commissioner under this Scheme.

(3) The selection or non-selection of cases for the purpose of assessment shall not confer any right or privilege to the said dealer and shall not to have caused any prejudice so far as it relates to the selection of the cases for the purpose of assessment.

8. Scheme not to affect certain assessment proceeding.-

The Scheme shall not affect any assessment proceeding,-

(a) that is selected, initiated, or taken any time before the date of publication of this Scheme in the Official Gazette, or

(b) where the assessment proceeding is initiated as a result of investigation under section 64 of the Act or section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act read with section 64 of the Act either before, or after the publication of the Scheme in the Official Gazette, or

(c) that is undertaken so as to give effect to the directions of any appellate authority including Tribunal or the Court.

9. Publication of order containing list of cases selected for assessment.-

The Commissioner shall, from time to time, publish the order containing the list of the cases selected for the assessment for each year on the Official Website of the Sales Tax Department.

By order and in the name of the Governor of Maharashtra,

R. D. BHAGAT,

Deputy Secretary to Government.